Hybrid arts - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Hybrid arts is a contemporary art movement in which artists work with frontier areas of science and emerging technologies. Artists work with fields such as biology, robotics, physical sciences, experimental interface technologies (such as speech, gesture, face recognition), artificial intelligence, and information visualization. They address the research in many ways such as undertaking new research agendas, visualizing results in new ways, or critiquing the social implications of the research. The worldwide community has developed new kinds of art festivals, information sources, organizations, and university programs to explore these new arts.
Hybrid arts is also the name of a non profit Arts education company in the United Kingdom. Set up in 2003 after a four year development period to create a new species of training and arts engagement provider in the cultural industries...see Hybrid:arts

Overview/ history of the term

Many artists are responding to the central role scientific and technological research plays in contemporary culture. They are going beyond merely using technological tools and gadgets (e.g. computers) in their work to engage deeply with the processes of research. They are creating revolutionary art at the frontiers of scientific research

Scientific method

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

. They see art as an independent zone of research that pursues areas of science and research ignored by mainstream academic disciplines. They are developing technologies that would be rejected by the marketplace but are nonetheless culturally critical. They are pursuing inquiries that are seen as too controversial, too wacky, too improbable, too speculative for regular science and technology. Their theoretical orientation ranges from celebration of human curiosity to critique of science's arrogance. They enter into the processes in research at all stages: setting research agendas, development of research processes, visualization, interpretations of findings, and education of the public.

There has been some confusion over the last years of what to call this kind of art that crosses so many disciplines. It is descended from computer and internet art

Internet art

Internet art is a form of digital artwork distributed via the Internet. This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and museum system, delivering aesthetic experiences via the Internet. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some kind of interaction with the work...

but reaches out to cover many new disciplines. Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...

, which is considered one of leading world organizations concerned with experimental arts, decided three years ago to create a new category to encompass these kinds of arts. Every year they host an international competition for artists working in these experimental fields. They decided to use the name 'Hybrid Arts'. The worldwide community of artists, theorists, and journalists interested in this art are increasingly using this term. Here is a quote from their web site that offers their definition and a preliminary list of kinds of art covered.

The “Hybrid Art” category is dedicated specifically to today’s hybrid and transdisciplinary projects and approaches to media art
New media art
New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...

. Primary emphasis is on the process of fusing different media and genres into new forms of artistic expression as well as the act of transcending the boundaries between art and research, art and social/political activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

, art and pop culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

. Jurors will be looking very closely at how dynamically the submitted work defies classification in a single one of the Prix categories of long standing.

This category is open to all types of current works in any form:

* Autonomic Installations and Artworks

* Autonomous Sculptures

* Performance and Stageprojects

* Media architectures

* Media based Interventions in public spaces

* Mechatronics / Kinetics / Robotics

* Location based and geospatial storytelling

* Multi user
Multi-user
Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system or application software that allows concurrent access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the...

environments

* Annotation software tools

* Artificial Life

* Transgenic Art

* Software Art
Software art
Software art refers to works of art where the creation of software, or concepts from software, play an important role; for example software applications which were created by artists and which were intended as artworks. As an artistic discipline software art has attained growing attention since the...

, Generative Art

--- Ars Electronica Website Ars Electronica Website

Many new support systems have evolved to nurture, show, and interpret this kind of art. New educational programs have been developed. Books have been written.

Sample of the research fields addressed in hybrid arts

-Genetics, Bioengineering, stem cell

Stem cell

This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

s, proteomics

-Art and Biology of Living Systems: microorganisms, plants, animals, ecology

-Human Biology: the body, bionics, body manipulation

Body modification

Body modification is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, religious reasons, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, shock value, or self expression...

, brain & body processes, body imaging, and medicine

-Physical Sciences: particle physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

, , geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, space science

Space science

The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....

, nanotechnology, materials science

Materials science

Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...

-Kinetics, Electronics, Robotics: physical computing

Physical computing

Physical computing, in the broadest sense, means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world. While this definition is broad enough to encompass things such as smart automotive traffic control systems or factory automation...

, ubiquitous computing

Ubiquitous computing

Ubiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems...

, mixed reality

-Alternative Interfaces: motion, gesture, touch, facial expression

Facial expression

A facial expression one or more motions or positions of the muscles in the skin. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among humans, but also occur...

, speech, wearable computing, 3-d sound

3D audio effect

3D audio effects are a group of sound effects that attempt to widen the stereo image produced by two loudspeakers or stereo headphones, or to create the illusion of sound sources placed anywhere in 3 dimensional space, including behind, above or below the listener.There are several types of 3D...

, and VR
-Code: algorithms, software art, genetic art, A-life

Artificial life

Artificial life is a field of study and an associated art form which examine systems related to life, its processes, and its evolution through simulations using computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American computer scientist, in 1986...

, artificial intelligence

-Information Systems: databases, surveillance, RFID/barcodes, synthetic cinema, information visualization

Telecommunications: telephone, radio, telepresence, web art, mobiles, locative media

Festivals, shows, conferences related to hybrid arts

Since much of the art does not fit into historical categories such as painting or sculpture, many museums and art festivals did not show the work. Curators who were interested created new kinds of festivals, competitions, museums and shows to present the work. Examples include Ars Electronica (note especially Interactive and Hybrid priz competitions. ISEA (International symposium of Electronic Arts), V2 - DEAF (Dutch Electronic Arts Festival), VIDA - Art & Artificial Life International Competition. Ars Electronica offers a festival each year that addresses transdisciplinary themes.Both artists and scientists are invited to speak at the conferences. Recent exhibitions focused on themes such as New Sex, Simplicity and Privacy.

Organizations, information sources, art/science collaboration support, educational programs

The hybrid arts community also established organizations and information sources to promote, disseminate, and interpret these new art activities. There are hundreds of such organizations of which a few examples are offered here. The external links show where to get more information. The Journal Leonardo published by MIT Press has a 40 year history of ‘promoting and documenting work at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and technology, and… encouraging and stimulating collaboration between artists, scientists, and technologists.’ The organization also has web sites, abstract services, and collaborates with other organizations in presenting conferences. The website We Make Money Not Art does an amazing job of covering media/research conferences, interviewing artist/researchers, and finding interesting developments in and out of the arts in fields ranging from activism and biology to surveillance and wearables.

Other organizations offer public events and facilitate the process of artists collaborating with researchers. For example, Arts Catalyst in the UK seeks to ‘extend the practice of artists engaging with scientific processes, facilities and technologies in order to reveal and illuminate the social, political and cultural contexts that brought them into being’ through public symposia, exhibitions, and commissions. SymbioticA in Australia is an ‘artistic laboratory dedicated to the research, learning and critique of life sciences.’ It ‘provides an opportunity for researchers to pursue curiosity-based explorations free of the demands and constraints associated with the current culture of scientific research.’ The arts lab is sponsored by the medicine department of a university. Other examples include the Art and Genomics Centre(NL), the LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial is an exhibition centre in Gijón, Spain, for art, science, technology and advanced visual industries...

(ES) and Artists in Labs (CH) program.

New forms of educational programs are being established at universities around the world. Students are expected to master topics in art, media, and research disciplines. For example the U of Washington’s DXArts program offers a ‘creative research convergence zone for intrepid artists and scholars’ who seek to reach out beyond the arts. The Conceptual/Information Arts (CIA) is the "experimental program within the Art Department at San Francisco State University dedicated to preparing artists and media experimentors to work at the cutting edge of science and technology". Courses cover topics such as art & biology, robotics, locative media, and physical computing.

External links

Stephen Wilson Web resources in art, science and technology. Includes 1. links to artist pages -categorized by research area; 2. links to festivals, shows, and museums; 3. links to organizations, information sources, art/science labs, educational programs; 4 online essays analyzing hybrid arts; and 5 bibliography

Festivals, Shows

Information sources, art/science collaboration support, educational programs

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Overview/ history of the term

Sample of the research fields addressed in hybrid arts

Festivals, shows, conferences related to hybrid arts

Organizations, information sources, art/science collaboration support, educational programs

Further reading

See also

External links